Multimedia systems, such as in-car entertainment systems or audio-video-receivers (AVRs), are known which comprise a plurality of multimedia sources for a playback. In particular, the multimedia sources comprised in the multimedia system can be of different nature in view of the playback.
Namely, on the one hand, conventional multimedia sources are known which provide a predefined and possibly prerecorded stream of multimedia data to a user. The user does not have the possibility to individually select multimedia data for the playback. The user may only choose the playback of the multimedia source. Such multimedia sources can be analog radio, digital radio, analog and digital television, internet live-streams, Internet radio, etc.
On the other hand, multimedia sources are known which allow for individually requesting the playback of certain multimedia data. The user may specifically select the certain multimedia data for the playback. For example, such multimedia sources comprise local storage units, remote storage units being connected via a remote storage interface connecting (e.g., to the Internet, or a compact disk or Blu-ray disk with individual songs/chapters etc.).
As noted above, one way to classify different types of the multimedia sources is to distinguish between the providing of individual multimedia data or the providing of predefined streams of the multimedia data. Another way of distinguishing and classifying different multimedia sources is to differentiate between analog and digital multimedia sources. For example, a commonly employed and widely popular multimedia sources is the frequency modulated (FM) radio in the wave band of roughly 88.0 to 108.0 MHz. FM radios typically provide a stream of analog multimedia data with no or only little additional information on the identity of the multimedia data of the current playback. Radio data service (RDS) tags commonly refer to the radio station rather than the identity of the multimedia data. Lately, digital multimedia sources have gained increasing popularity. In particular, the provisioning of audio and/or video files in a digital format on hard disc drives or on remote storages, e.g., in the Internet, has changed the multimedia consumption habits of consumers.
Current multimedia systems such as audio-video-receivers (AVR) or in-vehicle entertainment systems allow the playback of a plurality of such multimedia sources and can handle the wide variety as outlined above. While the different multimedia sources have their own characteristic standards and operation properties, recently a desire has arisen to classify and keep track of the multimedia consumption of a user independently of the type of multimedia source.
Accordingly, a need exists to provide techniques of the playback employing a plurality of multimedia sources and allowing for a unique identification of the playback independently of the type of the given multimedia source of the playback.